RV Electrical Systems Overview: Distribution Center
Dave SolbergDescription
Once connected to an outside power source the power coming into your unit is routed through RV electrical systems and distribution centers. The distribution center is where the fuses and circuit breakers are located and where the power is rerouted to the appliances and the converter for 12 volt electric sources.
Though most are similar, RV electrical systems can vary among different units. To get a better idea of the type of RV electrical systems used in your unit, take a look inside the distribution center. In there you will see the circuit breakers that operate the air conditioner, microwave and refrigerator. In most units you will also see the automotive style fuses that operate the 12 volt system such as the stove and lights on the inside of the unit.
If there is something not working properly that is hooked up to RV electrical systems it is possible to conduct some quick diagnostics to determine the cause of the problem.
When self-diagnosing an issue with RV electrical systems you will want to start by checking the circuit breakers. Flip the breakers on and off checking to ensure they are crisp and not sloppy. Look for any signs that the breaker is blown. This means it will not reset and stay up. If a breaker will not reset, it could be a worn or defective breaker. However, verify there is not a short in the RV electrical system that connects to this breaker prior to replacing it.
On the 12 volt side of the RV electrical system you can diagnose an electrical problem by using a meter and testing each fuse connection to ensure there is enough power going through each one.
Older RV electrical systems had the distribution center and 12-volt converter together in one location. They were loud and put out a tremendous amount of heat. Newer models have the distribution center with the circuit breakers and 12-volt fuses in an accessible location, but the 12-volt converter is separate, usually tucked away in a cabinet or underneath in basement models. Out of sight, out of mind.
Once you have taken a look at the electrical system, you will be able to further determine where the power issues are coming from.
The distribution center in your RV is where the power is gonna come in from a campground source, and it's gonna be fed to your appliances and your converter for 12 volt. Now this one happens to be right in the hallway here and this is an older MagneTek power converter on the bottom of the distribution center. We see we've got our one, our circuit breakers along here. They're gonna do the air conditioner, the microwave, the refrigerator. Then we've got our 12 volt system here and those are going to be fuses that do the stove, the lights inside. All our 12 volt is gonna be hooked to that here. So, a little bit of diagnostics that we can do. If we've got something that's not working on 110 volt, I can come in here and I can see how crisp these are. If I got one that's really sloppy or it doesn't, if it's, if it's blown and it won't reset and stay up, then we either have a short in that circuit or we've got a faulty circuit breaker. So I just, you know, can test these real quick. You can see how we kind of get a little bit of a flicker in here. This is my main one. It'll shut everything off. On the 12 volt side, to diagnose problems with these, we basically come in with a meter and just test these little automotive style fuses to see that any of them have blown. On the newer models now we do not have the converter located right inside here. We're gonna be in a different location. So let's go take a look at a newer unit. Here we have one of the newer distribution centers. It's in our 2014 fifth wheel. And we have our circuit breakers here. They're gonna take all our 110, 120 volt appliances with breaker systems. These are all the 12 volt systems with our fuses. So again, to check them, we're just gonna make sure that we got a good, solid snap out of them. We can do a, a test of the, of the fuses themselves. Now with this system it's a little different because the actual converter, our 12 volt converter is not right in here with the rest of it, so that can be hidden somewhere off underneath. It's, it's gonna generate a little bit of heat. So we don't have heat coming in here. Now the older system we just looked at is gonna be noisier. It's gonna actually put heat into that front area. So it's nice with these newer ones to be able to literally put them into a different area and then just bring our, our power up into this center right here.
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